Simultaneously too many and not enough dingers, White Sox lose again
By James Fegan
It’s depressing how easily “eight-game losing streak” transitions into “lost nine of their last 10.” One day and not nearly enough hours removed from a wonky and discombobulated triumph, the White Sox slid right back into their losing ways, dropping a 5-4 10-inning heartbreaker to Oakland behind a barrage of four A’s solo home runs.
The fatal blow came off the bat of light-hitting utility infielder Adam Rosales, who tomahawked a high-and-inside 95 mph fastball from Matt Thornton just inside the left field foul pole with plenty of wall clearance. With two outs and a runner on in the bottom half of the tenth, Adam Dunn–making over 20 times Rosales’ salary this season–skied a ball to the same side of the park Rosales went to, where it died on the track to end the game, throwing Hawk into the deepest shades of despair.
Yup, that fits nicely into the larger narrative of the season
The lack of a bullpen after Wednesday’s marathon meant that Jose Quintana was always at risk to wear it in the later innings as interim manager Mark Parent sought an extended outing, but there was no fatigue to blame during an otherwise efficient 7.2 innings completed with only 107 pitches to work. Quintana located poorly in the zone, was hammered for it and watched a rare lead get slowly whittled away.
Staked to a 3-0 lead, Quintana split the plate on a 91 mph heater that never came in very far on Yoenis Cespedes, who clocked a towering blast to left-center for Oakland’s first tally in the fourth inning. Still sitting with a 3-1 lead in the fifth, Quintana rolled a curveball to Adam Rosales for a two-out RBI double, foreshadowing awful things ahead. After getting his cushion pushed out to 4-2, Quintana out-cautioned himself against Cespedes in the sixth, staying away from his pull power until Yoenis lurched across the plate and pounded an opposite-field solo shot to bring things to within one. The final goof-up came in seventh against Josh Reddick, when a curveball intended to be low and away stayed up and in a zone where Reddick could merely pivot and golf out the game-tying blast to right.
Four runs isn’t a very good output, but it seems like an admirable number for the White Sox to have provided in a single game, especially given the method. Two-straight two-out looping singles off the bats of Alexei Ramirez and Alex Rios gave the Sox a three-spot in the third inning. A resurgent Alejandro De Aza put together a three-hit night and looked to kick start a rally in the sixth when singled home Gordon Beckham and pushed Tyler Flowers to third with nobody out.
Two batters later, Ramirez had popped out feebly, Adam Dunn had lined out and Flowers compounded frustrations by trying to test Josh Reddick’s throwing arm and getting so thoroughly beaten by the ball that he had to try to drive it out of Derek Norris.
He failed.
Team Record: 25-33